Dynamic provisioning system for communication networks

ABSTRACT

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a virtualized communication device dynamic provisioning system includes a computer-based set of instructions that are executed to generate a user interface for receiving selection of one or more virtualized communication devices. The instructions may then receive provisioning information associated with the selected virtualized communication devices from the user interface, and provision the virtualized communication devices in accordance with the received provisioning information to prepare and equip the virtualized communication devices according to the financial transaction.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to and claims priority under 35 U.S.C.§119(e) to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 62/294,188, filed Feb. 11,2016, entitled “DYNAMIC PROVISIONING SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATION NETWORKS,”the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference for allpurposes.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to communication networks and,in particular, to a dynamic provisioning system for communicationnetworks.

BACKGROUND

Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) refers to a technology in which avirtualization technology is used to design a network structure withindustry standard servers, switches, and storage that are provided asvirtualized communication devices. That is, the NFV technologyimplements network functions as virtualized software objects that can berun in existing industry standard servers and hardware. NFV technologymay also be supported by a cloud computing technology and in some cases,may also utilize various industry-standard high volume servertechnologies.

Using NFV, networks may be implemented that scale easily due theinherent extensibility provided by virtualization. Nevertheless,conventional NFV architectures are generally implemented as enterpriselevel structures due to their relatively high level of complexity.Therefore, smaller organizations that may not have the resources orcapital to warrant use of such enterprise level devices and may belimited in their ability to make use of this innovative architecture.

It is with these observations in mind, among others, that variousaspects of the present disclosure were conceived and developed.

SUMMARY

According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, a virtualizedcommunication device dynamic provisioning system includes acomputer-based set of instructions that are executed to generate a userinterface for receiving selection of one or more virtualizedcommunication devices. The instructions may then receive provisioninginformation associated with the selected virtualized communicationdevices from the user interface, and provision the virtualizedcommunication devices in accordance with the received provisioninginformation to prepare and equip the virtualized communication devicesaccording to the financial transaction.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of thedisclosure will be apparent from the following description of particularembodiments of the disclosure, as illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. The drawings are not necessarily to scale and often mayprovide simplified views of various features with emphasis instead beingplaced upon illustrating the principles of the disclosure.

FIG. 1 depicts an example virtualized network function (VNF) dynamicprovisioning system according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting an example communication deviceleasing application executed on the communication device leasingcomputing system according to one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIGS. 3A through 3D illustrate example screenshots that may be displayedby the network function leasing application for leasing VNFs on the userinterface of a customer computing device according to one embodiment ofthe present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example process that may be performed by the VNFleasing application according to the teachings of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example computer system according to oneembodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of a dynamic provisioning system and method described hereinprovides a technique for leasing communication devices to customers onan on-demand basis using a user interface, such as an online website,that interacts with a customer to receive selection of one or morecommunication devices from among multiple communication devices andprovisions those devices for use by the customer. When selection of thecommunication devices has been received, the system facilitates afinancial transaction with the customer to pay for the communicationservices provided by the communication devices, and communicates withone or more network structures to facilitate provisioning of theselected communication devices for use by the customer. Embodiments ofthe present disclosure may be particularly well suited for virtualizedfunctions, such as virtualized network functions (VNFs) implemented in avirtualized environment, such as a network function virtualization (NFV)structure that can be provisioned and de-provisioned in a relativelyeasy manner for many customers on an on-demand basis.

Communication devices typically used in modern communication networksmay include routers, switches, hubs, firewalls, security appliances,load balancers, and encryption appliances, just to name a few. Each ofthese communication devices serves a particular purpose in support ofcommunication services provided over the communication networks.Moreover, a structured combination of these communication devices may beprovisioned to provide various communication services to customers ofthe communication networks. These communication services, nevertheless,may change on a frequent basis due to many factors, such as changes inneeded throughput capacity (e.g., bandwidth), increase or decrease indemand, and the like. As such, development of communication networksthat are adaptable and extensible to ever changing needs of the customerhas become an important factor to the success of these networks.

NFV is one particular type of architecture that has been developed tomeet these needs. In general, NFV is a network architecture thatutilizes virtualization to provide communication devices that operate ina virtualized computing environment. Generally speaking, a NFV isprovided by one or more physical hosts (e.g., a stand-alone computingdevice, multiple blades implemented in a blade array, etc.) that mayeach execute one or more VNFs. Each VNF typically includes an operatingsystem and is implemented in a manner to generally emulate theoperations of a stand-alone computing device, such as a physical host.VNFs may provide certain advantages over that of their physical hostcounterparts in that their operation may be abstracted from theunderlying physical structure that supports their operation.

Nevertheless, communication devices implemented as VNFs in a NFVstructure are often large, complex structures that are relatively costlyto implement and are thus are often only used by large corporationshaving relatively large needs to justify the costs and maintenance ofthe NFV structure. That is, smaller organizations, which may not requirethe use of a fully implemented NFV structure and do not possesssufficient financial resources to warrant use of NFV structures may belimited in their access to this new and promising technology.

FIG. 1 depicts an example VNF dynamic provisioning system 100 accordingto one embodiment of the present disclosure. The VNF dynamicprovisioning system 100 includes a NFV provisioning computing system 102that stores a NFV provisioning application 104 and a data source 106. Aswill be described in detail herein below, the application 104 receivesrequests to lease one or more VNFs 108 of a NFV structure 110 from auser interface 118 executed by a customer computing device 112 of acustomer 114, and activates the requested VNFs 108 for use by thecustomer 114. The application 104 may also communicate with a customerfinancial account server 116 associated with the customer to conduct afinancial transaction for use of the VNFs 108.

Although the present example describes VNFs 108 that can be leased tocustomer on an on-demand basis, it is contemplated that any suitabletype of communication device may be leased using the teachings of thepresent disclosure. For example, the VNF dynamic provisioning system 100may be used to lease one or more hardware-based communication devices inwhich these hardware-based communication devices may be remotelyprovisioned, by the system 100, to prepare and equip the communicationdevices to be used by the customer on a lease-by-lease basis.Nevertheless, communication devices embodied as VNFs may provide certainadvantages, such as leveraging the enhanced capabilities of VNFs byentities, such as small organizations, that would otherwise be limitedfrom their use due to their relatively complex nature and high costlayout. Additionally, communication devices implemented as VNFs in a NFVstructure are logical objects that are easily provisioned and deleted,thus forming a system that can be conducive to being leased on anon-demand basis. For example, communication devices, such as VNFs 108may be leased for use by the customer over a specified time frame, suchas the current date to 6 months from now, next year starting on January1st, the first three weeks of March, and the like.

Within this disclosure, the term ‘lease’ means providing a product orservice (e.g., a virtualized communication device) to a customer for aspecified period of time, and may in some cases, involve payment for useof those products or services from the customer to the provider of thoseproducts or services. To consummate the lease, the application 104 mayfacilitate a financial transaction between a customer financial accountof the customer 114 by communicating with a customer financial accountserver 116 to provide payment for the leased VNFs 108. Once payment isreceived, the application 104 may communicate with a service providerfinancial account server 120 to transfer the received payment to aservice provider financial account of a service provider 122 who managesthe operation of the NFV structure 110. The service provider financialaccount server 120 generally refers to an entity that stores informationassociated with a financial account maintained for the service providerthat maintains the NFV structure 110, while the customer financialaccount server 116 generally refers to another entity associated with afinancial account of the customer. The service provider financialaccount server 120 and the customer financial account server 116 haveone or more processors and executable instructions stored in volatileand/or non-volatile memory for performing the actions and/or stepsdescribed herein.

The customer 114 may be any entity, such as an individual, or anorganization (e.g., non-profit business, for-profit business,university, governmental organization, etc.) that may use the VNFs 108provided by the system 100. The customer 114 may manage a customerpremises equipment (CPE) 124, a gateway 126, and the customer computingdevice 112. The CPE 124 may serve as an endpoint that originates andterminates communication traffic through a communication network 128.For example, the CPE may be a private branch exchange (PBX) that iscoupled to the gateway 126 via a trunk or other communication link. Thegateway 126 serves as an interface between the CPE 124 and thecommunication network 128, and may perform various functions, such aslink session negotiation, protocol translation, fault isolation,impedance matching, and the like.

In a particular example implementation, the customer 114 having anestablished communication link 132 that extends at least from the CPE124 to a network node 134, desires to provide enhanced security for thatlink 132 by leasing certain VNFs 108 from the service provider 122.Therefore, the customer 114 may lease certain VNFs 108, such as afirewall and an encryption appliance, provision those NVFs 108 toestablish a new link 132′ between the gateway 126 and NFV structure 110,and another link 132″ extending between the NFV structure 110 and thenetwork node 134 such that the original link 132 is replaced by the newlinks 132′ and 132″. Thus, the leased VNFs 108 may provide enhancedsecurity and malware protection by using VNFs 108 that can be modifiedand/or replaced on an ad-hoc basis to meet the needs of the customer 114in an extensible manner.

The VNF provisioning computing system 104 may include any type thatmanages the operation of the application 104, and communicates with theNFV structure 110, customer computing device 112, customer financialaccount server 116, and service provider financial account server 120for leasing VNFs 108 to customers on a lease-by-lease basis. In oneembodiment, the VNF provisioning computing system 104 functionsaccording to an operational support system (OSS) that manages variousoperations of the VNFs 108 in the NFV structure 110 as well as othercommunication devices in the communication network 128. Examples ofother operations that may be performed by the VNF provisioning computingsystem 104 may include network configuration of each or a combination ofcommunication devices (VNFs 108, network node 134, etc.), networkinventory, network configuration, and fault management.

The NFV structure 110 may be implemented in any suitable datacommunication network 128. For example, the communication network 128may be an Internet Protocol (IP) based communication network, such as a‘tier 1’ communication network that provides varying types ofcommunication services (e.g., voice, data, and video communicationservices, etc.). The communication network 128 provides multiplecommunication services for users using various communication devices(e.g., VNFs 108, gateways 126, network nodes 134, etc.) that convey orotherwise relay data traffic from one communication device to anothercommunication device to provide various types of communication services.Communication services that may be provided include, for example, voicecommunication services, data communication services (e.g., Internet,e-mail messaging, etc.), and video communication services (e.g.,multimedia messaging services (MMS), digital video broadcast services(DVB), video streaming, etc.).

Each communication device may have various purposes and responsibilitiesin the communication network 128. For example, the communication devicesmay include packet switches or packet routers that route communicationservices between two or more communication devices. Other types ofcommunication devices may include gateway devices each having a firstinterface that communicates according to a first protocol, and a secondinterface that communicates according to a second protocol, such as onethat interfaces a data communication network (e.g., the Internet) with apublic switched telephone network (PSTN). A typical gateway may havemany interfaces communicating over the same and/or different protocols.The gateway 126 may be, for example, an ingress network element and/oregress network element that that receives packets from or transmitspacket to, respectively, a customer communication device.

The communication devices may communicate with one another in anysuitable manner, such as using wireless, wired, and/or opticalcommunications. In one embodiment, the communication devices communicatewith one another using a communication network, such as the Internet, anintranet, or another wired and/or wireless communication network. Inanother embodiment, the communication devices communicate with oneanother using any suitable protocol or messaging scheme. For example,they may communicate using a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP),extensible markup language (XML), extensible hypertext markup language(XHTML), or a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) protocol. Otherexamples of communication protocols exist. For example, thecommunication devices may communicate with one another without the useof a separate and a distinct network. Additionally, other embodimentscontemplate that the modules employed by the communication devices.

The data source 106 stores customer account information 138, VNFinventory information 140, VNF inventory information 140, and VNFpricing information 142. The customer account information 138 includesinformation associated with each customer of the service provider andmay include, for example, name, address, contact information (e.g.,phone number, e-mail address, etc.), financial account information,currently leased NFVs, and the like. The VNF inventory information 140includes information associated with the VNFs 108 that may be availablefor lease to customers 114 of the service provider 122. The VNF pricinginformation 142 includes pricing information for each type of VNF 108that is available for lease to customers. In one embodiment, the NFVpricing information 142 may include a pricing schedule that can be usedby the application 104 to modify a price for each VNF 108 according toone or more parameters, such as date/time (e.g., a time of day, a timeof the year, etc.), a capacity level of the NFV structure 110,occasional incentives provided to the customer 114, and the like. Forexample, the pricing schedule may provide a first price for a particularVNF 108 when the NFV structure 110 is experiencing under 50 percentcapacity, a second price for that VNF 108 when the NFV structure 110 isexperiencing between 50 to 80 percent capacity, and a third price forthat VNF 108 when the NFV structure 110 is experiencing above 80 percentcapacity. As another example, the pricing schedule may provide one priceduring a first quarter of the year, and another price during the otherthree quarters of the year.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting an example VNF dynamic provisioningapplication 104 executed on the communication device provisioningcomputing system 102 according to one embodiment of the presentdisclosure. The communication device provisioning computing system 102includes a processing system 202 that includes one or more processors orother processing devices. A processor is hardware. Examples of such acomputing system include one or more servers, personal computers, mobilecomputers and/or other mobile devices, and other computing devices. Thecommunication device provisioning computing system 102 may communicatewith the NFV structure 110 via wireless, wired, and/or opticalcommunications.

According to one aspect, the communication device provisioning computingsystem 102 includes a computer readable media 204 on which theapplication 104 and data source 106 are stored. The application 104includes instructions or modules that are executable by the processingsystem 202 to perform the features of the communication device dynamicprovisioning system 100 described herein. The computer readable media204 may include volatile media, nonvolatile media, removable media,non-removable media, and/or another available media that can be accessedby the Communication device provisioning computing system 102. By way ofexample and not limitation, computer readable media 204 comprisescomputer storage media and communication media. Computer storage mediaincludes non-transient storage memory/media, volatile media, nonvolatilemedia, removable media, and/or non-removable media implemented in amethod or technology for storage of information, such ascomputer/machine readable/executable instructions, data structures,program modules, and/or other data. Communication media may embodycomputer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, orother data and include an information delivery media or system.

According to one aspect, the computing system 102 includes a userinterface 206 displayed on a display 208, such as a computer monitor,for displaying data. The computing system 102 may also include an inputdevice 210, such as a keyboard or a pointing device (e.g., a mouse,trackball, pen, or touch screen) to enter data into or interact with theuser interface 206. According to one aspect, the application 104includes instructions or modules that are executable by the processingsystem 202 as will be described in detail herein below.

A user interface module 212 facilitates the receipt of input data and/oroutput data from or to the customer 114, respectively, for manipulatingthe operation of the system 100. In one example, the user interfacemodule 212 may receive customer input for selecting one or more VNFs 108to be leased, receiving provisioning information for provisioning thoseVNFs 108, and/or receiving financial account information for paying forthose leased VNFs 108. In another example, the user interface module 212may display information for the customer 114, such as the various typesof VNFs 108 that are available for lease, and whether or not thetransaction for the VNFs 108 was completed successfully.

A NFV structure interface module 214 communicates with the NFV structure110 to control the operation of the VNFs 108. In one embodiment, the VNFstructure interface module 214 may communicate with an orchestrator tocontrol the operation of the VNFs 108. Generally speaking, anorchestrator is a system that controls the operation of hardware objects(e.g., hosts) and VNFs 108 executed on those hardware objects. Oneexample of a suitable type of orchestrator 214 includes a CiscoIntelligent Automation For Cloud (CIAC) software suite available fromCisco Corporation in San Jose, California. In one embodiment, theapplication 104 may be implemented as a modular software component(e.g., a plug-in, an add-on, an extension, etc.) that may be deployed asa component of the orchestrator for manipulating the operation of theorchestrator to perform the various features of the present disclosuredescribed herein. In another embodiment, the application 104 may beimplemented independently of the orchestrator in which the orchestratorincludes an application program interface (API) specifically designed tocommunicate with the NFV structure interface module 214 via the modularsoftware component. In yet another embodiment, the NFV structureinterface module 214 may communicate with the orchestrator using asuitable communication link (e.g., TCP/IP, RS232, etc.) that providesfor control over certain operations of the orchestrator.

A VNF selection module 216 facilitates the selection of one or more VNFs108 to be leased by the customer. For example, the NFV structureinterface module 212 may generate a graphical user interface (GUI) or acommand line interface (CLI) on the user interface 118 of the customercomputing device 112 for prompting the customer to select one or moreVNFs 108 to be leased, and receiving customer input in response to theprompt. In one embodiment, the VNF selection module 216 may access theVNF inventory information 140 and/or the VNF pricing information 142stored in the data source 106 to generate the user interface 118 that isdisplayed for the customer 114. For example, the NFV structure interfacemodule 216 may use the VNF inventory information 140 to display onlythose VNFs that are available for lease by the customer (e.g., thosecommunication devices in the NFV structure 110 that have not beenpreviously leased). Additionally, the NFV selection module 216 may usethe communication device pricing information to associate a monetaryprice to be associated with each VNF 108 offered to the customer 114.

In one embodiment, one or more VNFs 108 may be provided according to aspecified level of functionality, such as via a subscription service.For example, the VNF selection module 216 may provide routerfunctionality on a throughput basis, such as one having 100Giga-byte-per-second throughput. In this case, the VNF selection module216 may obtain performance information about any available router VNFs108 in the system, calculate a quantity of the router VNFs 108 that willbe capable of providing router functionality at this level, and activatethe router VNFs 108 for use by the customer.

A financial account interface module 218 communicates with a paymentprocessing server, such as the customer financial account server 116and/or the service provider financial account server 120, to transact amonetary transfer of funds from the customer's financial account to thefinancial account of the service provider via the service provideraccount server 120. For example, the application 104 may facilitate afinancial transaction between a customer financial account of thecustomer 114 by communicating with the customer financial account server116 to provide payment for the leased VNFs 108, and once payment isreceived, the application 104 may communicate with the service providerfinancial account server 120 to transfer the received payment to aservice provider financial account of a service provider 122.

A VNF provisioning/de-provisioning module 220 manages the provisioningand/or de-provisioning of VNFs 108 that have been leased and those VNFs108 whose leases have been expired, respectively. For example, the VNFprovisioning/de-provisioning module 220 may receive instructions fromthe financial account interface module 218 to provision one or more VNFs108 when a financial transaction for lease of those VNFs 108 have beensuccessfully consummated by the financial account interface module 218.For example, the VNF provisioning/de-provisioning module 220 maycommunicate with a virtualized management system that manages theoperation of the VNFs 108 to provision and de-provision the VNFs 108according to information obtained from the VNFprovisioning/de-provisioning module 220. Additionally, the VNFprovisioning/de-provisioning module 220 may also monitor the customeraccount information 138 stored in the data source 106 to identify thoseVNFs 108 whose lease has expired and in response, de-provision thoseVNFs 108 from use.

It should be appreciated that the modules described herein are providedonly as an example of a computing device that may execute the VNFdynamic provisioning application 104 according to the teachings of thepresent disclosure, and that other computing devices may have the samemodules, different modules, additional modules, or fewer modules thanthose described herein. For example, one or more modules as described inFIG. 2 may be combined into a single module, or one module describedabove may be embodied as two or more separate modules. As anotherexample, certain modules described herein may be encoded and executed onother computing devices that are separate and distinct from thecomputing device 102 as described above.

FIGS. 3A through 3D illustrate example screenshots that may be displayedby the network function provisioning application 104 for leasing VNFs108 on the user interface 118 of a customer computing device 112according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. In general, FIG.3A is a customer login screen 300, FIG. 3B illustrates a VNF typeselection screen 310, FIG. 3C illustrates a VNF selection screen 330,and FIG. 3D illustrates a transaction consummation screen 350.

Referring initially to FIG. 3A, a customer login screen 300 is providedthat that is used to receive passcode information from the customer 114for establishing a login session with the customer 114. The customerlogin screen 300 includes a username field 302 and a password field 304for entry of a username and password, respectively, for an accountassociated with a customer 114. The login session provides forauthentication of the customer 114 to mitigate the possibility of anyillicit transactions that may be incurred by the application 104.Although a username/password combination is described herein forestablishing a login session, it should be understood that the customerlogin screen may use any suitable authentication mechanism. For example,the customer login screen 300 may communicate with the customercomputing device 112 to receive biometric scan data, such as fingerprintdata obtained from a fingerprint scan device to authenticate the userfor establishing the login session. The customer login screen 300 mayalso include a registration button 306 that when selected, causes theVNF dynamic provisioning application 104 to generate one or more otherscreens for registering an account with the customer 114.

Once the customer 114 has been authenticated, the VNF type selectionscreen 310 (FIG. 3B) may be displayed that provides for user selectionof a type of VNF 108 by the customer 114. The VNF type selection screen310 may include a VNF types list 312 including a selectable list of VNFtypes that may be selected by the customer 114, a provisioning entrybutton 314, and a lease duration entry button 316. The VNF type list 312includes one or more indications of various VNF types that may beselected by the customer 114. The provisioning entry button 314 isprovided so that, after selection of a particular VNF type is entered bythe customer 114, additional provisioning information related to thatselected VNF may be entered by the customer 114.

The leasing duration entry button 316 is provided to receive userinformation associated with a starting time and duration that theselected VNF is to be leased by the customer 114. The leasing durationentry button 316 provide a mechanism for the application 104 to receivetiming information related to a period of time in which the VNF is to beleased. For example, the application may receive a start time (e.g., thecurrent date/time, a particular date and/or time in the future, etc.)indicating when the lease is to begin, and a duration (e.g., one month,20 days, 2 years, etc.) representing how long the lease is going tooccur.

When a particular VNF type has been selected by the customer 114, theapplication 104 may display the VNF selection screen 330 (FIG. 3C) maybe displayed that provides for user selection of a particular VNF by thecustomer 114. The VNF selection screen 330 generally includes a list ofVNFs arranged in a table 332 in which the rows represent VNFs 108 in theNFV structure 110, while the columns 334 represent various parameters ofeach VNF. As shown, certain rows have been greyed-out to indicate thattheir respective VNFs are not available for lease due to some reason.Examples in which certain VNFs may not be available for lease mayinclude all otherwise available VNFs of a particular type are currentlybeing leased, none of any available VNFs of a particular type are in aworking, functional state, and/or the VNFs are not compatible with thecustomer's native equipment. Nevertheless, other embodiments contemplatethat any suitable visual cue (e.g., change in color, hue, etc.) or othersuitable indicia may be provided to delineate those VNFs that areavailable for lease from other VNFs that are not currently available forlease.

The table 332 includes a model column 334 a, a location column 334 b, aperformance rating column 334 c, a pricing column 334 d, and a selectioncolumn 334 e. The model column 334 a indicates a make and modelinformation associated with its respective VNF. The location column 334b indicates a geographical region or other location moniker indicating alocation of the VNF. The performance rating column 334 c displays one ormore performance ratings that are associated with its respective VNF.Although only a throughput (e.g., bandwidth) rating is shown, it shouldbe understood that the performance ratings column 334 c may include andnumber of type of performance ratings (e.g., memory allocation,processing speed, etc.) to be associated with its respective VNF. Thepricing column 334 d displays a cost to be assessed to the customer 114for leasing its respective VNF.

The selection column 334 e provides for selection of a particular VNF bythe customer 114. For example, as shown, the VNF having a modelidentification of “ACME 1102a” has been selected by the customer 114.Thus, when the ‘continue’ button is actuated by the customer 114, thetransaction consummation screen 350 (FIG. 3D) may be displayed thatfacilitates consummation of a transaction for leasing the selected VNFsfor use by the customer 114.

The VNF consummation screen 350 (FIG. 3D) includes a list of VNFs 352selected for lease by the customer 114, a ‘continue shopping’ button354, and a ‘proceed to checkout’ button 356. Once the customer 114 hasselected all desired VNFs for lease, the ‘proceed to checkout’ button356 may be actuated to perform a financial transaction for paying forthe leased VNFs. However, if the customer wishes to add additional VNFsto the list of VNFs, the ‘continue shopping’ button 354 may be actuatedsuch that the VNF type selection screen 330 (FIG. 3B) may again bedisplayed on the customer computing device 112 to receive selection ofanother VNF to be added to the list of VNFs 352. Thus, the list of VNFs352 is cumulative in that additional VNFs may be added by the customer114 and a transaction consummated after all desired VNFs have beenselected for lease.

Although FIGS. 3A through 3D illustrate example entry screens that maybe used for leasing VNFs to the customer 114 or other user, the system100 may include additional, fewer, or different entry screens withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Forexample, the system may include one or more other screens forfacilitating display of information to the customer, and/or receiveduser input from the customer for leasing VNFs.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example process 400 that may be performed by theVNF dynamic provisioning application 104 according to the teachings ofthe present disclosure. Initially in step 402, the application 104generates a user interface 118 on the customer computing device 112. Inone embodiment, the application 104 may generate a user interface in theform of a webpage that is transmitted to the customer computing device112 using a communication network, such as the Internet. In anotherembodiment, the application 104 may establish a login session with thecustomer 114 by receiving passcode information and comparing thatpasscode information with that stored as user account information 138 inthe data source 106 to ensure no illicit access is obtained to theapplication 104. Nevertheless, use of a login session may be omitted ifproviding a secure channel for communication with the customer 114 isnot needed or desired (e.g., the customer computing device 112 isimplemented in a secure environment such that no secure communicationchannel is needed).

In step 404, the application 104 displays available VNF devices on theuser interface 118. For example, the application 104 may display VNFtype selection screen (FIG. 3B) to receive selection of a particulartype of VNF to be leased and a VNF selection screen (FIG. 3C) to receiveselection of a particular VNF from the customer 114. In one embodiment,the application 104 may also display other information associated witheach VNF such as, make (e.g., brand) and model of the VNF, geographicallocation of the VNFs, one or more performance ratings associated withthe VNFs, and a cost to lease each VNF. In one embodiment, theapplication 104 may calculate a cost for certain VNFs according topricing information 142 stored in the data source 106. For example, theapplication 104 may access the pricing information 142 to determine thata particular VNF is on sale at 50 percent of its normal price during themonth of July. Specific pricing information set out herein is providedsolely for the sake of example. Since the normal price of the VNF asincluded in the VNF inventory information 140 is set to be $8.00 permonth, the application 104 may calculate a price for that VNF to be$4.00 per month and display that amount on the user interface 118 forview by the customer 114.

In step 406, the application 104 may receive customer input thatincludes selection of one or more VNFs. In one embodiment, theapplication 104 may also receive provisioning information to be includedwith each selected VNF. For example, the application 104 may receiveprovisioning information to be included with a router, such as routingtable information, or if the VNF is a firewall, receive firewall ruleinformation to be included as firewall rules for use by the firewall.

In step 408, the application 104 facilitates a financial transaction forleasing the VNFs to the customer 114. For example, the application maydisplay the transaction consummation screen (FIG. 4D) on the userinterface 118 that displays the currently selected VNFs to be leased bythe customer 114 along with pricing information for each VNF. When thecustomer 114 is satisfied with the currently selected VNFs, theapplication 104 may facilitate the transaction by communicating with acustomer financial account server 116 of the customer to withdrawmonetary funds for transfer to a service provider financial accountserver 120 of the service provider to pay for the VNFs that are to beleased. Nevertheless, it is contemplated that other embodiments of theVNF dynamic provisioning system 100 may provide VNFs 108 for use by thecustomer without monetary transferal from the customer to the provider.

In step 410, the application 104 provisions the selected VNFs for thecustomer. The application 104 may provision the selected VNFs usinginformation provided by the customer via the user interface 118. In oneembodiment, the application 104 communicates with an orchestrator thatmanages the operation of the VNFs to provision those VNFs. Nevertheless,the application 104 may provision the leased VNFs using any suitablemechanism or technique.

In step 412, the application 104 continually monitors the operation ofthe VNFs according to the consummated transaction stored as user accountinformation 138 in the data source 106. For example, the application 104may scan through the user account information 138 on a periodic basis(e.g., every day) to find any VNFs whose lease has expired. When theapplication 104 determines that a lease to a particular VNF has expired,it may then de-provision that VNF, and update the VNF inventoryinformation 140 in the data source 106 such that it may be available forlease by other customers of the VNF dynamic provisioning system 100.

The process may be continued at as described above for leasing otherVNFs to other customers or the same customer. Nevertheless, when use ofthe application 104 is no longer needed or desired, the process ends.

It should be appreciated that the process described herein is providedonly as an example and that the VNF dynamic provisioning system 100 mayexecute additional steps, fewer steps, or differing steps than thosedescribed herein. For example, the steps 402 through 412 may be executedin any suitable order; that is, the steps as described in FIG. 4 are notlimited to execution in any particular sequence. As another example,either of the steps 402 through 412 described herein may be executed bythe upgrade computing system 102 or may alternatively be performed byanother computing system without departing from the spirit or scope ofthe present disclosure.

The description above includes example systems, methods, techniques,instruction sequences, and/or computer program products that embodytechniques of the present disclosure. However, it is understood that thedescribed disclosure may be practiced without these specific details.

In the present disclosure, the methods disclosed may be implemented assets of instructions or software readable by a device. Further, it isunderstood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methodsdisclosed are instances of example approaches. Based upon designpreferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy ofsteps in the method can be rearranged while remaining within thedisclosed subject matter. The accompanying method claims presentelements of the various steps in a sample order, and are not necessarilymeant to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

The described disclosure may be provided as a computer program product,or software, that may include a machine-readable medium having storedthereon instructions, which may be used to program a computer system (orother electronic devices) to perform a process according to the presentdisclosure. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storinginformation in a form (e.g., software, processing application) readableby a machine (e.g., a computer). The machine-readable medium mayinclude, but is not limited to, magnetic storage medium (e.g., hard diskdrive), optical storage medium (e.g., CD-ROM); magneto-optical storagemedium, read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); erasableprogrammable memory (e.g., EPROM and EEPROM); flash memory; or othertypes of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions.

For example, FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hostor computer system 500 which may be used in implementing the embodimentsof the present disclosure. The computer system (system) includes one ormore processors 502-506. Processors 502-506 may include one or moreinternal levels of cache (not shown) and a bus controller or businterface unit to direct interaction with the processor bus 512.Processor bus 512, also known as the host bus or the front side bus, maybe used to couple the processors 502-506 with the system interface 514.System interface 514 may be connected to the processor bus 512 tointerface other components of the system 500 with the processor bus 512.For example, system interface 514 may include a memory controller 513for interfacing a main memory 516 with the processor bus 512. The mainmemory 516 typically includes one or more memory cards and a controlcircuit (not shown). System interface 514 may also include aninput/output (I/O) interface 520 to interface one or more I/O bridges orI/O devices with the processor bus 512. One or more I/O controllersand/or I/O devices may be connected with the I/O bus 526, such as I/Ocontroller 528 and I/O device 530, as illustrated.

I/O device 530 may also include an input device (not shown), such as analphanumeric input device, including alphanumeric and other keys forcommunicating information and/or command selections to the processors502-506. Another type of user input device includes cursor control, suchas a mouse, a trackball, or cursor direction keys for communicatingdirection information and command selections to the processors 502-506and for controlling cursor movement on the display device.

System 500 may include a dynamic storage device, referred to as mainmemory 516, or a random access memory (RAM) or other computer-readabledevices coupled to the processor bus 512 for storing information andinstructions to be executed by the processors 502-506. Main memory 516also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediateinformation during execution of instructions by the processors 502-506.System 500 may include a read only memory (ROM) and/or other staticstorage device coupled to the processor bus 512 for storing staticinformation and instructions for the processors 502-506. The system setforth in FIG. 5 is but one possible example of a computer system thatmay employ or be configured in accordance with aspects of the presentdisclosure.

According to one embodiment, the above techniques may be performed bycomputer system 500 in response to processor 504 executing one or moresequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 516.These instructions may be read into main memory 516 from anothermachine-readable medium, such as a storage device. Execution of thesequences of instructions contained in main memory 516 may causeprocessors 502-506 to perform the process steps described herein. Inalternative embodiments, circuitry may be used in place of or incombination with the software instructions. Thus, embodiments of thepresent disclosure may include both hardware and software components.

A computer readable medium includes any mechanism for storing ortransmitting information in a form (e.g., software, processingapplication) readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). Such media maytake the form of, but is not limited to, non-volatile media and volatilemedia. Non-volatile media includes optical or magnetic disks. Volatilemedia includes dynamic memory, such as main memory 516. Common forms ofmachine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, magneticstorage medium (e.g., hard disk drive); optical storage medium (e.g.,CD-ROM); magneto-optical storage medium; read only memory (ROM); randomaccess memory (RAM); erasable programmable memory (e.g., EPROM andEEPROM); flash memory; or other types of medium suitable for storingelectronic instructions.

Embodiments of the present disclosure include various operations orsteps, which are described in this specification. The steps may beperformed by hardware components or may be embodied inmachine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause ageneral-purpose or special-purpose processor programmed with theinstructions to perform the steps. Alternatively, the steps may beperformed by a combination of hardware, software and/or firmware.

It is believed that the present disclosure and many of its attendantadvantages will be understood by the foregoing description, and it willbe apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction,and arrangement of the components without departing from the disclosedsubject matter or without sacrificing all of its material advantages.The form described is merely explanatory, and it is the intention of thefollowing claims to encompass and include such changes.

While the present disclosure has been described with reference tovarious embodiments, it will be understood that these embodiments areillustrative and that the scope of the disclosure is not limited tothem. Many variations, modifications, additions, and improvements arepossible. More generally, embodiments in accordance with the presentdisclosure have been described in the context of particularimplementations. Functionality may be separated or combined in blocksdifferently in various embodiments of the disclosure or described withdifferent terminology. These and other variations, modifications,additions, and improvements may fall within the scope of the disclosureas defined in the claims that follow.

What is claimed is:
 1. A dynamic provisioning system comprising: acomputing system comprising a processing system and a memory for storinginstructions that are executed by the processing system to: generate auser interface for receiving selection of a virtualized communicationdevice; facilitate a financial transaction for leasing the virtualizedcommunication device; and provision the virtualized communication deviceto prepare and equip the virtualized communication device to be usedaccording to the financial transaction.
 2. The dynamic provisioningsystem of claim 1, wherein the virtualized communication devicecomprises a virtualized network function (VNF) configured in a networkfunction virtualization (NFV) structure, the VNF is executed by aphysical host to emulate an operation provided by a physicalcommunication device.
 3. The dynamic provisioning system of claim 1,wherein the instructions are further executed to facilitate thefinancial transaction by communicating with a financial account of thecustomer as payment for leasing the virtualized communication device. 4.The dynamic provisioning system of claim 1, wherein the instructions arefurther executed to: receive a start time and a duration associated withthe selected virtualized communication device; provision the virtualizedcommunication device at the start time identified by the received starttime information; and de-provision each of the virtualized communicationdevice at an ending time associated with the received durationinformation.
 5. The dynamic provisioning system of claim 1, wherein theinstructions are further executed to: display virtualized communicationdevice information associated with the virtualized communication deviceon a user interface; and display monetary price information to beassociated with the virtualized communication device on the userinterface.
 6. The dynamic provisioning system of claim 5, wherein theinstructions are further executed to calculate the monetary priceinformation according to a pricing schedule stored in the memory.
 7. Thedynamic provisioning system of claim 1, wherein the instructions arefurther executed to: display virtualized communication deviceinformation associated with the virtualized communication device on auser interface; and display an indication of the availability of thevirtualized communication device on the user interface.
 8. The dynamicprovisioning system of claim 1, wherein the instructions are furtherexecuted to provision the virtualized communication device bycommunicating with an orchestrator to provision the selected virtualizedcommunication device, the orchestrator executed to manage the operationof the virtualized communication device.
 9. A dynamic provisioningmethod comprising: generating, using instructions stored on acomputer-readable medium and executed by a processor, a user interfacefor receiving selection of a virtualized communication device;facilitating, using the instructions, a financial transaction forleasing the virtualized communication device; and provisioning, usingthe instructions, the virtualized communication device to prepare andequip the virtualized communication device to be used according to thefinancial transaction.
 10. The dynamic provisioning method of claim 9,wherein the virtualized communication devices comprise virtualized anetwork functions (VNF) configured in a network function virtualization(NFV) structure, the VNF is executed by a physical host to emulate anoperation provided by a physical communication device.
 11. The dynamicprovisioning method of claim 9, further comprising facilitating thefinancial transaction by communicating with a financial account of thecustomer as payment for leasing the communication device.
 12. Thedynamic provisioning method of claim 9, further comprising: receiving astart time and a duration associated with the selected virtualizedcommunication device from the user interface; and provisioning each ofthe virtualized communication devices at the start time identified bythe received start time information; and de-provisioning each of thevirtualized communication device at an ending time associated with thereceived duration information.
 13. The dynamic provisioning method ofclaim 9, further comprising: displaying virtualized communication deviceinformation associated with the virtualized communication device on theuser interface; and displaying a monetary price to be associated witheach of the virtualized communication device on the user interface. 14.The dynamic provisioning method of claim 13, further comprisingcalculating the price according to a pricing schedule stored in thememory.
 15. The virtualized communication device dynamic provisioningmethod of claim 9, further comprising: displaying virtualizedcommunication device information associated with the virtualizedcommunication devices on the user interface; and displaying anindication of the availability of each virtualized communication deviceon the user interface.
 16. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumencoded with instructions executable by a processor to: generate a userinterface for receiving selection of a virtualized communication device;facilitate a financial transaction for leasing the virtualizedcommunication device; and provision the virtualized communication deviceto prepare and equip the virtualized communication device to be usedaccording to the financial transaction.
 17. The instructions of claim16, wherein the virtualized communication device comprise a virtualizednetwork function (VNF) configured in a network function virtualization(NFV) structure, the VNF is executed by a physical host to emulate anoperation provided by a physical communication device.
 18. Theinstructions of claim 16, further executed to facilitate the financialtransaction by communicating with a financial account of the customer aspayment for leasing the communication device.
 19. The instructions ofclaim 16, further executed to: receive a start time and a duration timeassociated with the selected virtualized communication device from theuser interface; and provision each of the virtualized communicationdevice at the received start time; and de-provision each of thevirtualized communication device at the conclusion of the receivedduration time.
 20. The instructions of claim 16, further executed to:display the virtualized communication device on a user interface;calculate a monetary price according to a pricing schedule stored in thememory: and display the monetary price to be associated with each of thevirtualized communication device on the user interface.